Scion is still pushing the individualist, customized youth brand schtick. The melodramatic ad above– which one can only hope is meant in a tongue-in-cheeck tone– once again flogs the tuner car image and notion of a Scion owners’ community. There’s no question that Scion’s lineup has some character– even if the linch-pin xB was diluted beyond recognition last year. But pursuit of the Fast and the Furious set is so five years ago. A company with clever small cars, small engines, decent MPGs, practical hatchbacks, and low no-haggle MSRPs should be selling itself as just that. Or, to quote former Scion exec and current Lexus exec Brian Bolain, “If we could relaunch Scion, I wouldn’t ever have called it a youth brand, because it’s a kiss of death.” So why didn’t the ad department get the memo?
9 Comments on “Scion Ad Just a Little Bizarre...”
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Maybe if they put a senior citizen in the driver’s seat it would be more realistic…and funny
It’s still lipstick on a…
Toyota.
The TC seems to be the only current model to be a youth favorite. I dont think I have ever seen anyone young behind the wheel of the new xB, xD, quite the opposite in fact, whereas it seems like all the Tc drivers are 18 or younger.
I realize that these are not exactly scientific observations, just my two cents.
Oh, and I have seen the ad. LAAAAAAAAME!!!!!!!! What’s the message here? “Be rebellious in conformist sort of way?”
” Or, to quote former Scion exec and current Lexus exec Brian Bolain, “If we could relaunch Scion, I wouldn’t ever have called it a youth brand, because it’s a kiss of death.””
They HAD to call Scion a youth brand because eveything they sold under the Toyota brand (except the Celica/Supra) were geezer-cars. It’s like Buick trying to freshen up it’s image with the Grand National. I mostly only ever see geezers driving around in the xA and xB, and teenaged kids driving the Celica-wannabee Tc.
The whole Scion thing was a marketing ploy to get younger buyers interested in starting out with the brand, and moving up through the Toyata and Lexus brands later on in life. Sounds kinda like GM’s marketing strategy for it’s brands doesn’t it ?.
@96M
You beat me to it. Old folk love that upright seating position.
geezers are better customers
I want to be different!
I want to be unique!
I want to be…
…just like everybody else!
Not to defend this ludicrous ad campaign, but I have customized the living hell out of my ‘05 xB…I can virtually guarantee that, with no warning or preparation, any one of my coworkers could pick my car out of a lot full of black xB’s that all started out the same. There’s a hell of a lot more you can do than the average fartcan.
…though, that’s an ORIGINAL xB. I’ve only seen two Gen 2’s – ever – that are modded in anyway. How Scion can continue to whore out the Gen 1 xB as the cornerstone of their ad campaign after senselessly discontinuing it is a mystery of GM-like proportions.
“Let’s all be individuals together!”